WITH its Moorish arches and golden mihrab, the mosque-cathedral of Córdoba is one of the top tourist destinations in Spain. Built in the eighth century, when Muslim Spain was part of a caliphate stretching from Gibraltar to Persia, it served as a mosque for over 400 years before the Christian kingdom of Castile conquered the city and converted it into a cathedral. It has been called the most important Muslim monument in the Western world. This does not entirely please Spain’s Catholic hierarchy, which in 2010 dropped “mosque” from the building’s name and changed it to simply “cathedral”. That has led to a row with activists who claim the church is trying to erase Spain’s Muslim heritage—as well as exploiting a legal loophole to take over public property all over the country.
Miguel Santiago, the leader of the Córdoba Mosque-Cathedral Platform, accuses the church of revising pamphlets and audio guides to play down Spain’s Muslim period. Ruins in the building’s foundation are presented as a prior Visigoth church on the site, a claim some archaeologists dispute. All of the…